Monarch Studio Café

Monarch Studio CaféMonarch Studio CaféMonarch Studio Café

Monarch Studio Café

Monarch Studio CaféMonarch Studio CaféMonarch Studio Café
  • Home
  • Artists
    • Jennifer Drinkwater
    • Gary L. Hightshoe
    • Paul Rudy
    • James Hall
    • Cristiana "Gray" Grahiola
    • Deanna Schweitzer
    • MaryKay Lambert
    • Folias Music
    • Kate Shu
    • FUTURE Monarch Artist
  • Exhibits
    • Creative Kids Collection
    • ARTstallations
    • ARTability
    • BareBones BodyART
    • Country Roads Collection
    • The Roosevelt Collection
    • The Native Collection
  • Café
    • Culinary Creations
    • Meet the Head Chef
    • Lifestyle Designs
  • Gift Shop
    • Shop NOW
  • ABOUT US
    • More About Us
    • Zoe "Hyde" Walter
    • The Kate Shu Collective
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
  • More
    • Home
    • Artists
      • Jennifer Drinkwater
      • Gary L. Hightshoe
      • Paul Rudy
      • James Hall
      • Cristiana "Gray" Grahiola
      • Deanna Schweitzer
      • MaryKay Lambert
      • Folias Music
      • Kate Shu
      • FUTURE Monarch Artist
    • Exhibits
      • Creative Kids Collection
      • ARTstallations
      • ARTability
      • BareBones BodyART
      • Country Roads Collection
      • The Roosevelt Collection
      • The Native Collection
    • Café
      • Culinary Creations
      • Meet the Head Chef
      • Lifestyle Designs
    • Gift Shop
      • Shop NOW
    • ABOUT US
      • More About Us
      • Zoe "Hyde" Walter
      • The Kate Shu Collective
      • Contact Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms and Conditions
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Orders
  • My Account

  • Signed in as:

  • filler@godaddy.com

  • Orders
  • My Account

  • Sign out

Signed in as:

filler@godaddy.com

  • Home
  • Artists
    • Jennifer Drinkwater
    • Gary L. Hightshoe
    • Paul Rudy
    • James Hall
    • Cristiana "Gray" Grahiola
    • Deanna Schweitzer
    • MaryKay Lambert
    • Folias Music
    • Kate Shu
    • FUTURE Monarch Artist
  • Exhibits
    • Creative Kids Collection
    • ARTstallations
    • ARTability
    • BareBones BodyART
    • Country Roads Collection
    • The Roosevelt Collection
    • The Native Collection
  • Café
    • Culinary Creations
    • Meet the Head Chef
    • Lifestyle Designs
  • Gift Shop
    • Shop NOW
  • ABOUT US
    • More About Us
    • Zoe "Hyde" Walter
    • The Kate Shu Collective
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions

Account

  • Orders
  • My Account

  • Sign out

  • Sign In
  • Orders
  • My Account

Welcome to the Studio of Jennifer Drinkwater

Meet Jennifer

A Mississippi Delta native, Jennifer Drinkwater is an artist, an associate professor of art & visual culture and the community arts specialist for extension and outreach at Iowa State University. Jennifer explores how we bring artwork from the studio into the world, and how art-making can both build and shape community. Over the years, she's created installations in restored prairies in Nebraska; collaborated on public art projects in vacant sites on Iowa main streets; spearheaded a community knit-bombing project; painted murals with middle school children on a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta and in Perry, Iowa; and written free toolkits about these projects. Jennifer's also the creator of The What's Good Project, which celebrates the meaningful stories from where we live through community conversations and painting. Although she's spent one year of her life living in tents, Jennifer currently lives and work in Ames, Iowa.

When we shift our focus from what’s wrong to what’s right, we can affect positive change where we live.

JD

Jennifer's Collections

Get Good Art

Get Good Art is intended to mirror JD's heart and head space engaged in the What's Good Project beginning in 2018. The world is inevitably full of problems, outrage, and angst. Images, stories, movies, tv series, books, and even Art is often overwhelmed with trauma, hate, dissension, controversy, and discord. 


Jennifer challenges herself, her Art, her students, and her audience to simply consider "What's good." The adage "good begets good" is one of JD's core values and principle beliefs. The more we focus on "What's Good," the more goodness we will both give and get in return. 

Our Collection

  

The conceptualization of the What's Good Project began with asking myself these questions: 


Q: What happens when we make a choice to look for what’s good where we live? 

Q: Can this build momentum and lead to communities getting even better?


The What’s Good Project is inspired by the philosophy of asset-based community development. According to research, when we shift our focus from what’s wrong to what’s right, we can affect positive change where we live.

Explore the Artistic Wonders of Monarch Studio Café Gallery

Get good Art - Shop Jennifer Drinkwater.

The Good Project Story

In the beginning...

Since 2018, I’ve been inviting people to tell me what’s good where they live. To date, two dozen people from 11 communities in Iowa (my current home) and Mississippi (my true home) have taken me up on this offer, which have resulted in over 60 paintings.

What I discovered...

You start to see themes about what resonates with folks. Places like the Northwest Mississippi Herald office in Water Valley that gave a retired Long Island transplant a weekly column so she could meet her new neighbors.


Or the literal and proverbial tables in stories of working through conflict, like the backroom of a coffee shop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, or the front room of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner.


Or the family farm in Rolling Fork that houses retired horses, including one called Linda Blair for her theatrics, and whose owner can only bear to be away for five days before her heart starts to break.

Discover the Beauty at Monarch Studio Café Art Gallery

#

Feeling Breezy

#

Flow Forward

#

888 Hz

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Monarch Studio Café

Copyright © 2025 Monarch Studio Café - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

Accept